The children made dinner for me today. A special “going away” dinner - to mark my final day with them for a week. As six oclock neared, I pulled the bags I had been filling throughout the day from the study, and shouted “are you coming to the station then?”
Twenty minutes or so later, I waved from the train carriage as three little girls and their Mum waved back from the cold night air, and I set out on something like a two hour journey across the country.
Only it didn’t quite work out like that.
On the approach to Reading station the train slowed to a halt. Not worries - I checked the train times, and still had twenty minutes until the connecting train was due to leave. Half an hour later, I was staring out of the still stationary train window, swearing under my breath.
The driver informed us that signalling problems elsewhere was causing congestion in the station.
After finally arriving in the station and forlornly wandering to the information screens, it became obvious that I had a 2 hour wait on my hands. The information kiosk, and my mobile app told me the same thing.
A good excuse to get somthing to eat and drink…
Two hours later I wandered back to the platform, and watched as the anticipated train went from being “on time”, to “delayed”, to “cancelled” in the space of five minutes.
Fun. Not.
Doing some more checking, it was going to be another hour before another train. Finally a chink of light appeared, in the form of a station en-route. I ran through the station, and jumped on the first train to the mid-point station.
Let this be a lesson to anybody reading train timing applications, or information screens at stations - ignore it all. If you have an open ticket (not a specific seat on a specific service), get on any train you like, heading in the general direction. I did, and suddenly retrieved an hour and a half of my life. Granted, I arrived at stations without knowing quite when the next train might leave to continue my journey, but it generally worked.
I finally arrived in my destination city at 11 this evening - 5 hours after setting out. It could have been much worse though… I almost gave up at Reading. I would have been attempting the return journey at 6 in the morning, off the back of a long and fruitless evening’s travel.
Anyway.
I’m here. In the hotel, with WiFi and breakfasts booked for the week. I’m also within walking distance of the office I will be working at, so there’s that…